Facebook Launches Its Own App Store Called App Center

Facebook is set to launch a new tool to help users more easily discover
apps, games and other services that connect to the social network.

The new service will allow users to read details on the various apps or
services that work with Facebook with easily visible screenshots and
comprehensive user ratings. The idea is to give users the best means to
judge whether to augment their Facebook experience. As well as featuring
on the Facebook.com website, the new service will be available on the
iOS and Android Facebook apps too.

“For the
over 900 million people that use Facebook, the App Center will become
the new, central place to find great apps like Draw Something,
Pinterest, Spotify, Battle Pirates, Viddy, and Bubble Witch Saga,” said Aaron Brady on the official Facebook developers blog.

App recommendations will be based on each user’s own usage patterns,
so the page will not be dominated by the the same old apps that simply
have the most users. Otherwise rankings will be based on things like
user ratings, average time spent
using the app, and how often it is voluntarily shared by users.

Potentially
courting controversy, the company will also let developers charge a
one-off fee to use their service through Facebook.

While there’s certainly room for this more app-centric Facebook to
result in a less streamlined socialising platform – especially in
combination with the recent Facebook Open Graph initiative – it could
also greatly improve the overall experience. Let us know your thoughts
on which way it will go in the comments.

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